Somewhat pointless, and I must admit pretty boring, chapter. It was just to introduce the new ability mainly, I'll probably just drop it after this chapter and fill you (whoever's reading this lol) in on what happened concerning this later on.
Riku thrust his palm downwards as something resembling a blast of chakra extended out of it. A large, white puff of smoke rose up around him, and when it receded Riku was mounted atop a medium sized dragon. Not nearly as large as Shadow, and it was of pathetic size compared to Deathwing, but still large enough for Riku to ride it, about three, maybe four times his own size. Its maw, though, was of fairly great size, having to contain the abnormally large, in proportion to the dragon, and sharp row of teeth. The creature was a dark blue color, nearly black.
Riku looked towards Vidar, who was standing, leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing they were standing in inside of the sage?s forest, questioning why this appeared; he had been aiming for Deathwing, and this was the fifth time he had summoned Blade?the dragon he was sitting on.
Vidar shrugged and leaned forward as he got off of the tree, ?Most likely you don?t have enough of a chakra reserve to summon anything too much larger than that. Don?t worry, if you?re going to be training with us for much longer, you?ll be able to summon any one of those things by the time you leave.?
Riku shrugged as well, and then hopped off of the creature, making a seal that dismissed it, ?So what now??
Vidar began to walk towards the exit to the forest, Riku following behind, ?Now? Well, there?s still quite some time left in the day since we worked through the night, so if you?re up for it, you go to your new teacher: The Sage of Ninjutsu.?
~
The Sage of Ninjutsu was, besides Jian, the only sage thus far that looked and seemed like Riku had expected. There was, as expected, a long staircase going downwards after the giant door opened, Vidar having left right after pointing Riku in the direction of the door. After coming down, Riku found that he was on a large platform, though not that large. From where he was, Riku could see the edges of it, and running along the edges were pillars that curved inwards, about twenty pillars in total, but they all stopped at a point so that their thin, pointed tips left room for a fairly large circle through which the sun shone down harshly.
In the middle of that circle, sitting on the ground in a meditative manner, was a man wearing a long robe that was blue at the top and slowly transcended colors into a gradually lighter blue until it was a pure white at the bottom. His robe had a hood, however, which was a deep blue, like an ocean blue; actually, it was darker, closer to cobalt. From beneath the hood, Riku could see some of his face, though his eyes were closed. The man looked fairly young, surely not over thirty.
Riku hesitantly walked up to the man, and as he walked closer to the inside of the platform, he could feel the wind rushing from all sides, likely colliding right at the center where the man sat, and there were braziers on opposite sides of the platform, both blazing with an azure fire. As Riku walked, examining his surroundings, the man slowly opened his eyes and looked up.
?Hello,? he said simply, startling Riku with his voice that was somewhere between deep and melodic.
After recovering, Riku replied, ?Uh... hi.?
?It is customary for a pupil to bow to his master,? the man said indifferently as he slowly rose. Riku took note that the man had hardly moved his legs; somehow the wind had pushed under him to raise him upwards.
Riku, deciding to obey despite the fact that this sage had a particularly condescending attitude, dipped low into a bow, ?My apologies.?
The sage was quiet for a long moment, and Riku shuffled his feet in anticipation, and then Riku noted that the man was smiling, no, more than that, he was laughing!
He was still laughing even as he spoke, ?Akira, Sage of Ninjutsu and Chakra and all that good stuff, at your service,? he said, extending a hand for Riku to shake.
Even more hesitantly than how he had walked in, Riku stretched his arm out and shook the seemingly crazy sage?s hand, who continued to speak, ?They told me you were the serious, though gullible, sort, wanted to test it out a bit.?
There was a long silence, well from Riku at least, as Akira laughed at his own joke, and then waited a while until Riku, wanting to get on with this already, laughed along. Riku also noted that his tone had changed, it wasn?t much deeper than Riku?s, in fact, it was the closest-to-childish voice that Riku had heard, besides his own, since he had arrived.
?So, uh, where exactly are you in terms of ninjutsu right now?? Akira asked, pulling the hood from over his head to reveal a full head of light brown hair and facial features that seemed closer to a person in their late teenage years rather than a grown man.
Riku thought for a moment, never having really considered the question, ?Well... I guess I?m decent in water and wind, and... I?d like to think that I?m pretty good with ice.?
Akira?s eyebrow rose at the mention of ice, as if he didn?t already know, and then realization seemed to strike him, ?Ah... yes... they did say something about ice. I can never pay attention in those meetings. Bunch of old men talking rubbish...? he went on for a while mumbling to himself, and then remembered that Riku was waiting for him, ?Oh, well, anyway, here?s the thing. I can?t really do much to help you with ice, I can use the element but I can?t make it from thin air like you, and meanwhile there?s no need for me to train you in elements that you already know, they?ll simply develop as you age, and I?d rather introduce you to new things and then go back to training on what you already know a bit later. Anyway, though, there?s something that I?m curious about... you have a decent understanding of both wind and water, so... has Shinru ever talked to you about rain??
Riku shrugged, ?A little, I suppose. No training in it, but we did talk to it up to some extent. It was really just a conversation to break the silence, in truth.?
Akira scratched the back of his head, ?Well... in short, I want to see if you have the potential to use it. It?s not like the basic elements, and if you can?t do it naturally it?ll take years of studying the element inside and out, learning everything possible about it, and actually seeing someone else do it.?
Riku nodded, though he had done a pretty good job in drowning out the rambling man, ?Yeah, so what do I need to do.?
?Well, just mix your water and wind chakra, I?m sure that you did this when you first started using ice, but focus it into the sky and make it come down. Uh... dunno how to explain this exactly, but just do your best. And remember-?
Akira stopped himself suddenly, as he felt water patting his hair down, and when he looked up, he could see a steady downpour of rain coming, and holding out his hand he could feel that this was genuine rain chakra, not water or wind, but rain. Akira dropped his gaze down to Riku, who was standing in a concentrated position, his hands in a seal, and then he opened his eyes as he felt the rain come down.
Akira leaned his head to the side and crossed his arms, ?A natural born... This?ll be interesting."
New Ninjutsu
Riku thrust his palm downwards as something resembling a blast of chakra extended out of it. A large, white puff of smoke rose up around him, and when it receded Riku was mounted atop a medium sized dragon. Not nearly as large as Shadow, and it was of pathetic size compared to Deathwing, but still large enough for Riku to ride it, about three, maybe four times his own size. Its maw, though, was of fairly great size, having to contain the abnormally large, in proportion to the dragon, and sharp row of teeth. The creature was a dark blue color, nearly black.
Riku looked towards Vidar, who was standing, leaned against a tree at the edge of the clearing they were standing in inside of the sage?s forest, questioning why this appeared; he had been aiming for Deathwing, and this was the fifth time he had summoned Blade?the dragon he was sitting on.
Vidar shrugged and leaned forward as he got off of the tree, ?Most likely you don?t have enough of a chakra reserve to summon anything too much larger than that. Don?t worry, if you?re going to be training with us for much longer, you?ll be able to summon any one of those things by the time you leave.?
Riku shrugged as well, and then hopped off of the creature, making a seal that dismissed it, ?So what now??
Vidar began to walk towards the exit to the forest, Riku following behind, ?Now? Well, there?s still quite some time left in the day since we worked through the night, so if you?re up for it, you go to your new teacher: The Sage of Ninjutsu.?
~
The Sage of Ninjutsu was, besides Jian, the only sage thus far that looked and seemed like Riku had expected. There was, as expected, a long staircase going downwards after the giant door opened, Vidar having left right after pointing Riku in the direction of the door. After coming down, Riku found that he was on a large platform, though not that large. From where he was, Riku could see the edges of it, and running along the edges were pillars that curved inwards, about twenty pillars in total, but they all stopped at a point so that their thin, pointed tips left room for a fairly large circle through which the sun shone down harshly.
In the middle of that circle, sitting on the ground in a meditative manner, was a man wearing a long robe that was blue at the top and slowly transcended colors into a gradually lighter blue until it was a pure white at the bottom. His robe had a hood, however, which was a deep blue, like an ocean blue; actually, it was darker, closer to cobalt. From beneath the hood, Riku could see some of his face, though his eyes were closed. The man looked fairly young, surely not over thirty.
Riku hesitantly walked up to the man, and as he walked closer to the inside of the platform, he could feel the wind rushing from all sides, likely colliding right at the center where the man sat, and there were braziers on opposite sides of the platform, both blazing with an azure fire. As Riku walked, examining his surroundings, the man slowly opened his eyes and looked up.
?Hello,? he said simply, startling Riku with his voice that was somewhere between deep and melodic.
After recovering, Riku replied, ?Uh... hi.?
?It is customary for a pupil to bow to his master,? the man said indifferently as he slowly rose. Riku took note that the man had hardly moved his legs; somehow the wind had pushed under him to raise him upwards.
Riku, deciding to obey despite the fact that this sage had a particularly condescending attitude, dipped low into a bow, ?My apologies.?
The sage was quiet for a long moment, and Riku shuffled his feet in anticipation, and then Riku noted that the man was smiling, no, more than that, he was laughing!
He was still laughing even as he spoke, ?Akira, Sage of Ninjutsu and Chakra and all that good stuff, at your service,? he said, extending a hand for Riku to shake.
Even more hesitantly than how he had walked in, Riku stretched his arm out and shook the seemingly crazy sage?s hand, who continued to speak, ?They told me you were the serious, though gullible, sort, wanted to test it out a bit.?
There was a long silence, well from Riku at least, as Akira laughed at his own joke, and then waited a while until Riku, wanting to get on with this already, laughed along. Riku also noted that his tone had changed, it wasn?t much deeper than Riku?s, in fact, it was the closest-to-childish voice that Riku had heard, besides his own, since he had arrived.
?So, uh, where exactly are you in terms of ninjutsu right now?? Akira asked, pulling the hood from over his head to reveal a full head of light brown hair and facial features that seemed closer to a person in their late teenage years rather than a grown man.
Riku thought for a moment, never having really considered the question, ?Well... I guess I?m decent in water and wind, and... I?d like to think that I?m pretty good with ice.?
Akira?s eyebrow rose at the mention of ice, as if he didn?t already know, and then realization seemed to strike him, ?Ah... yes... they did say something about ice. I can never pay attention in those meetings. Bunch of old men talking rubbish...? he went on for a while mumbling to himself, and then remembered that Riku was waiting for him, ?Oh, well, anyway, here?s the thing. I can?t really do much to help you with ice, I can use the element but I can?t make it from thin air like you, and meanwhile there?s no need for me to train you in elements that you already know, they?ll simply develop as you age, and I?d rather introduce you to new things and then go back to training on what you already know a bit later. Anyway, though, there?s something that I?m curious about... you have a decent understanding of both wind and water, so... has Shinru ever talked to you about rain??
Riku shrugged, ?A little, I suppose. No training in it, but we did talk to it up to some extent. It was really just a conversation to break the silence, in truth.?
Akira scratched the back of his head, ?Well... in short, I want to see if you have the potential to use it. It?s not like the basic elements, and if you can?t do it naturally it?ll take years of studying the element inside and out, learning everything possible about it, and actually seeing someone else do it.?
Riku nodded, though he had done a pretty good job in drowning out the rambling man, ?Yeah, so what do I need to do.?
?Well, just mix your water and wind chakra, I?m sure that you did this when you first started using ice, but focus it into the sky and make it come down. Uh... dunno how to explain this exactly, but just do your best. And remember-?
Akira stopped himself suddenly, as he felt water patting his hair down, and when he looked up, he could see a steady downpour of rain coming, and holding out his hand he could feel that this was genuine rain chakra, not water or wind, but rain. Akira dropped his gaze down to Riku, who was standing in a concentrated position, his hands in a seal, and then he opened his eyes as he felt the rain come down.
Akira leaned his head to the side and crossed his arms, ?A natural born... This?ll be interesting."
